Aphex Twin responds to backlash after linking to COVID conspiracy video

Over the weekend Aphex Twin, aka Richard D. James, was called out for supporting/promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories after uploading a track with a YouTube URL as its title.

As Clash reports, the URL directed people to a COVID-19 conspiracy clip, and after seeing people's reactions, Aphex Twin has updated his SoundCloud bio to explain it.

Aphex Twin writes, "...had a lot of Pm's, tried to answer a lot of them individually but to the ones I didn't reply to: I definitely don't think Covid is a hoax, I'm just very worried about the erosion of civil and human rights and how we are to get them back."

The artist also wrote in a comment, "I mean what if we the people are not happy about any other government policies, we now can’t have more than 6 people in a protest, what are we to do?"

He also reacted to Chancellor Rishi Sunak's recent comments about people retraining for employment in the UK, which were first interpreted as being directed at people working in the arts industries, "Got very upset about Rishi Sunak, UK minister the other day saying musicians should retrain…I mean really, ffs?"

CRACK Magazine notes that his bio previously read, "'You stupid tin foil hat wearing idiot’, said the person wearing a two month old soggy mask."

It comes after Aphex Twin posted a message about his late father on SoundCloud in April, which saw him warn people about living in a "police state".